Kukla's Korner Hockey

So while most outsiders are fixated on the top-4 in this draft, Buffalo Sabres general manager Tim Murray, who has the No. 2 overall pick, said his team’s success depends more on what he does with the three selections in the second round.

Those picks, said Murray, probably won’t get nearly as much attention as the first-round pick. But in a draft that is seven rounds deep, those later selections — where the Chicago Blackhawks found Niklas Hjalmarsson at 108th overall and the New York Rangers unearthed Henrik Lundqvist with the 205th pick — are often the lifeblood of the team’s future.

“I think in every draft you have the ability to rebuild and get good players, but not every draft has a Crosby or a Toews,” Murray said this week at the NHL Draft Combine in Toronto. “You have to acquire NHL players. And it’s not just with your first pick.”...

“The way to rebuild is to draft well so that you can trade well and then you use free agency to put you over the top,” said Murray. “If you can hit on a couple of seconds and a couple of thirds, you might be able to trade for that real good player down the road.”